Fakir was not in the market for a merwife; he'd seen all the trouble Mytho had gone through to get his happily-ever-after with Rue, and he wanted none of that. So it was quite by mistake that he ended up lost at sea in his leaky little canoe, paddling his way through mermaid-infested waters, and ending up with a chattering redheaded mergirl as his only companion. The second time he got lost, ending up by some miracle in precisely the same waters, was also a mistake, of course.